


In All My Feelings

by Moebius



Series: The Heart and Understanding [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Impossible Wolf, canonical AU!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moebius/pseuds/Moebius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Saturday with Rose and Clara. Books, tea, parents, and time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In All My Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically a sequel to my previous story, [In a Moment](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5426363). But, idk, I think it could stand alone if you haven't/don't want to read that.
> 
> The title is a quote from Sense and Sensibility: “I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.”

It was late in the morning, on a Saturday, and Rose and Clara were doing what they often did late in the morning on Saturdays in the past few months, since Rose had unofficially become a permanent guest at Clara’s flat; they were reading.

Clara had a book and Rose was skimming messages on her phone, daydreaming a little, and occasionally dozing off. After she cleared her inbox for the third time in half an hour, she looked down at Clara, who was snuggled up against her, flipping through a worn book. “What are you reading?”

“ _Sense and Sensibility_.”

“Clara,” Rose smiled and shook her head. “You’ve read that three times just since we’ve been together.”

“I know. It’s my favorite.”

“Why?”

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Answering a question with a question is not going to get you out of this one, Miss Oswald.”

“I was getting to a point. Go on, what’s your favorite book?”

“I…” Rose thought about it. She had never really liked reading, and couldn’t remember a single assigned book that she had enjoyed, or a single book she had read that hadn’t been assigned. “I don’t know. Does Seventeen magazine count?”

Clara scrunched her nose up. “Absolutely not.”

“Charles Dickens?”

“Charles Dickens what?”

“Uh, the ghost book he wrote.” She was reaching.

“ _A Christmas Carol_?”

“No, the one with the… blue gas monsters?” It occurred to her too late that she should have just said yes, _A Christmas Carol_ , and moved on with the conversation.

Clara shifted so she was looking directly at Rose. “There wasn’t one with gas monsters.”

“Oh.” Well, she was in it now. Rose thought about it. “Some bloke named Edward something? Killed by blue gas monsters?” When Clara shook her head again, Rose sighed. “Obviously not my favorite, then.”

“Wait right here.” Clara extricated herself from Rose’s body, causing Rose to sigh again. The morning had been so nice and quiet and snuggly, and now books. Not that they were inherently bad, but right now they were interrupting her snuggle time. Quiet snuggle time was something she had come to appreciate more as she aged. She was still up for a good adventure, of course, but there was something to be said for the moments in between.

Clara returned a few minutes later, arms laden with books. “Alright, I have some options.”

Rose blinked. “I’ll say.”

“First, _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_.” She smiled. “It was never finished, but maybe the mystery was the gas monster.”

“Yeah,” Rose shrugged. It sounded vaguely familiar, but Charles Dickens had been so long ago. She was just a kid. “Sounds about right.”

Clara put the book down where she’d been sitting. “Then, _Pride and Prejudice_.”

“Is that the one with zombies?”

“I can’t believe you’re my girlfriend.”

Rose grinned. “Me neither.”

That earned her a small kiss before Clara continued. “ _The Great Gatsby_.”

“I saw the mo-“

“No. Don’t finish, my heart can’t take it.”

“Come here,” Rose reached out and grabbed a part of Clara’s shirt, pulling her back down towards the couch. Clara let the rest of the books drop and settled onto Rose’s lap, facing her. “Your heart’s safe with me.”

“So you’ll read _The Great Gatsby_?”

“Well, I was going to distract you from your books, but I guess if I have to.”

“Go on, distract me. I’ll assign your homework later.”

“Yes, Miss…”

\--

In the end, after several hours of distraction, both on the couch and off, both with clothes and without, Rose agreed to read _Wuthering Heights_. Clara had offered a few other books, but when she described the plot, as vaguely as she could, Rose chose that one.

“It’s romantic,” Clara told her, almost as a warning. “Well. Sort of.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Okay. As long as there aren’t any aliens or gas monsters.” She smiled. “Or zombies.”

“None of the above.”

“I’ll start tomorrow.”

Clara looked around for the book. The two of them had ended up back on the couch, sprawled under a blanket, with the books around them. “Why don’t you start now?”

“Because we’re having tea with my mum and dad, so I need to spend the next two hours worrying about how badly my mum is going to embarrass me.”

“Rose, your mum’s lovely.”

“You’re just saying that because you’ve only met her in a professional setting, when she was on her best behavior because she was secretly worried you’d mark Tony down if she wasn’t.” She took a breath and looked at the ceiling. “She was always a bit… critical of my boyfriends.”

“I’m not your boyfriend.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Well maybe she was just waiting for you to bring the right woman home.”

“You’re cute, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“How cute?”

“ _So_ cute.”

“Cute enough that you can stop worrying about your mum?”

Rose bit her lip. “I’m not sure even _you_ are that cute, Clara.”

“Don’t count me out just yet, I’ve got secret stores of cuteness waiting for the right moment.”

“To attack?”

“Rawr.”

\--

It turned out that Rose didn’t need to worry about Jackie at all. Jackie was not only on her best behavior, but she clearly liked Clara quite a bit, and did her best to not embarrass Rose so that she’d keep bringing Clara around.

Pete, however, was a different story. “So how long have you been a teacher, Miss Oswald?”

“Just a couple of years.”

“And before that?”

“I was a nanny for a family friend.”

“I see, and have you dated many women?”

Jackie and Rose turned towards him and yelled at the same time. “Pete!”

Clara, for her part, seemed entirely nonplussed. She smiled sweetly. “Here and there. Have you?”

Rose smiled and mouthed, “I love you,” which caused Clara’s eyes to widen a bit, as it was the first time either of them had said anything of the sort to one another. Almost said. When Rose realized it, she shrugged. “It’s true.”

That one she’d said out loud, so both Pete and Jackie stopped their arguing about the amount of women anyone at the table had dated, and looked at Rose. “What is?”

“Oh, she’s dated a few women and I love her.”

“I knew it!”

“Jackie.”

“What! All those no good men, no offense to Mickey and the Doc- John, who were fine, but they didn’t have _roots_.”

“Mum, what’s your obsession with roots?”

“I’m getting older, Rose, it’s nice to know there will be someone here after I’m gone to look after your brother. And you’ve always been a bit of a…” She glanced at Clara. “Traveler.”

Clara had recovered from the profession of love. She reached over and squeezed Rose’s thigh, for support. “So what you’re saying, Mrs Tyler – Jackie?” Jackie nodded her approval. “So what you’re saying is you’ve just been waiting for Rose to bring the right woman home?”

“Alright, you win, you’re _that_ cute.” Rose rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, which had been the response Clara was going for.

Pete cleared his throat. “I’m just being a protective dad.”

It wasn’t clear who he was explaining himself to, but Clara was the one who responded. “Of course, Mr Tyler. I’ve met a fair share of overprotective dads. ”

“So you understand then.”

Rose had told Clara about Pete not raising her, and how he’d been catching up on lost time, especially since she’d been back home from her most recent series of trips. “Absolutely. But Rose and I aren’t built on promises. And,” she turned to Jackie, “I’m afraid we may travel a bit during summer holiday.”

This statement worked exactly how Clara had planned, by distracting Jackie enough that she commandeered the conversation. “Oh? Where?”

“We haven’t decided,” Rose replied. “But I wanted to show Clara some of the places I’ve seen.”

Jackie narrowed her eyes. “Only places?”

“Yes, Mum, only places. I’m not taking Clara to the future or anything.” There was no point saying she couldn’t. She probably could if she wanted to, if she broke into the Torchwood stores and stole whatever this universe’s version of a vortex manipulator was. The thought hadn’t really crossed her mind until that moment, when it occurred to her that her parents had been expecting her to do it all along.

“Rose! She knows?”

“She knows. I told her.” She glanced at Clara.

For the first time in awhile, Jackie had nothing to say. Pete looked between the women and then cleared his throat. “So. Um. Biscuits?”

\--

“That went well.”

Rose pulled a pillow over her head. “Mmph.”

“I agree. I was right all along.” Clara pulled her jumper off and sat beside Rose on the bed. “You could, couldn’t you?”

“Mhpwhat?”

“Travel in time.”

There was a moment of silence, then Rose lifted rolled over and lifted the pillow off her head. “Why?”

“Why haven’t you?”

“You’re doing that answer with a question thing again.”

Clara raised her eyebrow and waited for the response.

Rose sighed. “Not because of you.”

“You haven’t gone because of me or it’s not because of me that you haven’t gone?”

“What?”

“Answering with a question!”

“Hang on, why are you allowed to do that but I’m not?”

“I’m cuter.” 

“Again with the cuteness.” Rose propped herself up on her elbows. “I haven’t gone because… I don’t want to. Part of me does, but most of me really doesn’t. It’d be a lot of hassle just to find what I need to do it, and I honestly don’t know what time travel here would even be like. I don’t know when your universe and my universe split, I don’t know what the future would be like, I don’t know how it would go with whatever I did find. So I’m scared. That’s part of it. And part of not going _is_ you, but not all of it, because I’d take you with me if I could. I’d show you time and space.”

She trailed off as she realized that Clara was looking at her with what she could only describe as a ‘proud teacher look.’ “What?” 

Clara climbed into the bed beside Rose. “You haven’t read a lot of books, but I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for how smart you really are.”

“You keep changing the subject, it’s a bit confusing.” Rose raised an eyebrow. “Or are you not changing the subject and I’m not catching on?”

“The latter.” Clara pressed a light kiss to Rose’s cheek. “Thank you for wanting to take me, I’d love to go. “

“We’re not going.”

“But if we were.”

“Do you want to?”

“Who wouldn’t?”

Rose thought about it. “I’m sure there’s someone out there.”

“You met Charles Dickens, didn’t you?” Clara’s mind worked so quickly that sometimes it seemed to Rose that she leapt from topic to topic. But she’d always explain, afterwards, if Rose asked, and the thread of her thoughts always made sense.

“I did.”

“And there were gas monsters?”

“There were.”

“And they were blue.”

Rose grinned. “They were as blue as you are cute.”

“That’s _very_ blue, Rose.” 

“Don’t I know it.”

 


End file.
